18
Hikkikomori, You Are Not
First, I should say that I’m not picking on Fang-tan or Shance for their posts, but Hikkikomori are really an entirely different breed from how you’re portraying them and how many of you know them. They just have a problem, really, and despite what you may think, it’s not anime. So before you go and call yourself a “Hikki” or a “NEET”, actually consider what you’re calling yourself. It’s like self-proclaiming yourself to be a F[at]Y[aoi]G[irl]. I know that SasukexNaruto crap’s not gonna read itself, but keep it on the DL.
Yeah, I’ve seen and read both NHK and Genshiken. I’ve seen Lucky Star. In the case of Genshiken and Lucky Star, they’re all just plain otaku. If we follow Shance’s definition of NEET:
In short, NEETs are unemployed people who leech the hell out of society and family.
Then no one in either series are NEET. Everyone works or at least trying to make a living. So if you consider yourself a Konata or any of the Genshiken crew, you are neither a NEET or a Hikki. Now in NHK, Satou is a NEET, but at one point, didn’t he too try to get a job? If we ignore that and look at how he turns out in the later part of the series, he’s a NEET. But does he fit under the category of “Hikkikomori”?
Now in no way am I proclaiming myself an expert on the subject. All I have to my name is that I can say that I’ve read Shutting Out the Sun: How Japan Created It’s Own Lost Generation by Michael Zielenziger. It’s one hell of an interesting book and I’ve always been interested about the subject of Hikkikomori so it was a great purchase and a great read.
So what are Hikkikomori? I’m going to form my own image here. First off, Hikkikomori are able to step out into the oustide world. There are a few -but gradually growing- Hikkikomori centers in Japan as the country is finally starting to accept that it has a Hikkikomori problem. They are places where they can gather and interact with others with similar problems. Though they are able to step into the outside world, many of them can only go out at night when all the prying eyes of their neighbors and random strangers cannot attack them. Yes, there are cases in which they just do not leave their room for years, but not all of them are like that. And not all of them are fat nerds who do nothing but collect anime figures and make plamos.
Some are violent themselves and attack their parents. Why? They constantly blame their parents for making them the way they are. Be it because of unusual punishment, abandonment and negligence, or the relationship between the parents are so bad that it spreads to the victim. There are even cases in which the child blames the parents for not standing up for them because they got bullied in school to the point where they could not attend school anymore, thus choosing to live a life away from everyone else. Japan is not as great as you may picture it, but that’s another story.
In the case of Welcome to the NHK, it is a really exaggerated story of a NEET. I dunno if I would quite categorize him as a Hikkikomori. His parents love him, but I forget if he went through a traumatizing experience or not. I guess my point is, if you seriously consider yourself a NEET or a Hikkikomori simply because you’d rather stay at home and watch anime, then you are gravely mistaken. I mean, look at me. My MAL page states that I’ve seen about 57 days of anime, give or take. But I’m neither a NEET or a Hikkikomori, I’m just a stupid kid who spent a lot of his time watching Japanese cartoons. I mean, come on. 57 days?! Geez, I could’ve… solved world hunger or something in that time. You, you’re probably just an Otaku.
Personally, I dislike being labeled an “otaku” because of all the negative connotations but some people that that as a point of pride. That’s all on you. This is not meant to be too serious, just pointing some things out for the sake of pointing things out.
… urgh, I need to go play some basketball.
edit: Oh and LOLOLOL: I admit my wrongs. It’s spelled “Hikikomori”. One k initially. Thank you nunka.
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Wednesday, June 18th 2008 at 1:08 am
I think that it has never been hinted why Satou has become a hikkikomori – maybe because the reasons why you can become like that are multifold and more complex than a light novel (which it was to begin with) could tackle? As for me, I know why I would be scared of sending my child to school in Japan, unless it’s some international school (and even those are somewhat doubtful to me).
Aside from that: I’m at 35 days by now, and I watch more anime than ever because I watch anime on my way to work, hahaha. So have fun playing basketball 😉
Wednesday, June 18th 2008 at 1:38 am
Damn, I dun even knows what it is 😀
Wednesday, June 18th 2008 at 2:18 am
Well, that’s pretty much the general rundown anyways. Info can always be added up and edited for clarity. Enlightenment achieved. Thank you very much 🙂
Wednesday, June 18th 2008 at 2:24 am
You read the book. Now spell the word correctly. 😛
Wednesday, June 18th 2008 at 3:41 am
An otaku is just another Japanese term for a *phile. For example, I’m a book otaku more than I am an anime one; this mania can also be called as bibliophilia and I a bibliophile. Hikkikomori are a cultural phenomenon most probably arising from the tiered and unforgiving fondness for academic excellence in Japan.
I don’t think most people can call themselves hikkikomori. I really don’t. Because while a lot of us are introverted, we also don’t seclude ourselves totally from the real world and our experience with education most probably isn’t as harsh as what a lot Japanese students experience.
Wednesday, June 18th 2008 at 4:42 am
Hmm Michael, I like your analogy of the word otaku with the suffix phile. Though personally I like to think of the english equivalent to calling someone an anime otaku would be calling them an anime head/buff. For me it feels more familiar. It might not be common vernacular to others, but I hear the words car buff, power head, military buff, or yoyo head get thrown around alot in some of the circles I travel in. I’m just throwing in my two cents on top of what’s been said.
Anyways, Os, nice rant post man. I never knew there were anime bloggers/people out there that called themselves NEET’s or hikki’s. That really blew my mind, I already have a phobia of people infected with DBZ syndrome and have only recently begun accepting them. Now I must deal with this, in actuallity I don’t think people should place themselves over others, or vice versa. (Please excuse my last two sentences due to my inabillity to make sense.)
Wednesday, June 18th 2008 at 5:15 am
You know what’s funny I was just reading on Wikipedia about the word “otaku.” The article was a nice read. I found it interesting to read the origins of the word. It was also interesting to know the differences the word is in the US and Japan. The article pointed out some big differences of what the word means in each country.
I agree with you Os. I think an NEET and hikkimori are different.
Wednesday, June 18th 2008 at 10:07 am
I’m surprised at how often people mash up the terms. Hopefully, more people will read your post and realize that there are more criteria than the only one they qualify under. x.x
Wednesday, June 18th 2008 at 11:10 am
LOLOLOL at nunka’s comment. I’ve edited in my embarrassment.
Wednesday, June 18th 2008 at 1:19 pm
Sweet, a convert. Now to work on the five thousand other bloggers that constantly misspell it…
Takin’ off every ZIG. For great spelling.
Wednesday, June 18th 2008 at 1:34 pm
Er, for lack of a better comment, nice post.
Wednesday, June 18th 2008 at 6:42 pm
I second lelangir’s comment.
Thursday, June 19th 2008 at 3:58 am
Great analysis, though I’ve heard more criticism than praise of Zielenziger’s book due to his narrow, perhaps biased reasoning for the source of hikikomori-ism. However, it certainly gave insight on to a hazy phenomena.
*sigh* And here I thought, I’d discovered comrades in fellow shut-ins. I think that the ability to acknowledge your faults (as in being a hikikomori) is an important step; I don’t think it’s such a bad thing to say you are such because it gives a sort of communal feel among those who are. I suppose I would fall under the technical definition of both hikikimori or NEET, including your caveat of trauma being a precursor for the syndrome. From wikipedia, “Moreover, clinically speaking, there is little difference between hikikomori and more formal clinical definition of people suffering from acute social withdrawal due to depression.” It’s been about a year and a half since I left university, so it’s under the grace of an indulgent husband who lets me stay in bed with my laptop. As far as “you won’t know until you meet a hikikomori”- well, they’re probably rare sightings. If they are indeed suffering from social withdrawal due to social anxiety disorder or depression, it’ll be difficult for them to go to group therapy or the like. I’m not saying that it doesn’t happen, I’m just saying that it’s difficult.
Now on to NHK- Satou was a hikikomori at the beginning, not having left his apartment for 2 years (excluding weekly excursions to the convenience store for food and to throw out trash) since he stopped going to class. His traumatizing experience is akin to social anxiety disorder. At least, he was portrayed as a hikikomori and NEET in the light novel. It’s only when things begin to happen- meeting Misaki and his neighbor Yamazaki that he starts to become less of a hikikomori. His shame at being a hikikomori when he meets Misaki leads him to attempt to find work so that he wouldn’t be lying when he tells her that he is not one. The funny thing that most people forget is that Satou is not an otaku, at least not in his period of hibernation. His neighbor, Yamazaki, was the otaku who attended class much like the cast of Genshiken or Konata from Lucky Star. I liked Welcome to the NHK for its gamut of realistically dysfunctional characters; reading the first chapters were like a bittersweet self-introspection.
Friday, June 20th 2008 at 11:03 pm
I never meant to imply that about Hikikomori. I merely meant to use them and NEETs as an example of how they are being portrayed in anime and games. So that when people hear ‘hikki’ or ‘neet’ then they think of Otakuism or whatever. I don’t like to call myself anything involving anime. It all seems to have a bad image attached to it.
I would have mentioned Rozen Maiden’s Jun. I know it’s hard to interject a fantasy anime character into a serious subject but it kinda goes long with your spiel about how NEET’s/Hikki’s have problems and don’t equal otaku.
Thursday, July 31st 2008 at 5:50 pm
[…] beyond what I’ve learned from reading the book itself, and the odd idiosyncratically-spelt blog post. My knowledge about hikikomori, when applied to Welcome to the NHK, is pretty […]
Monday, December 1st 2008 at 10:43 am
I think i need help, can I even get help? I don’t know if I’m a hikikomori or not. What can i do to help myself? someone please reply to this comment
Friday, September 18th 2009 at 2:42 am
[…] This resulted in an “impoverished” life, wherein the luster of material possession takes precedence over comfortable living. Things that should have been used for something that would make people comfortable, is being used on something that I think would make myself comfortable, which is wrong. Worse comes to worst, people doing this kind of stuff would start being unkempt, unsocial, and would stay inside their homes as if they were locked beasts in self-isolation. In short, you’ll become what is pertained in these posts. […]
Monday, July 3rd 2017 at 12:30 pm
[…] utter crap, because they write on random topics (and not gender-related topics anymore). Thus, even Osu disagrees with their bad definitions and near to non-existent background […]